Trust in the State Inadequate as Pretext for NSA Spying (Folha, Brazil)

"This web of espionage is even more astounding for a people so jealous of individual liberty and a government that is so ready to condemn and punish other nations which violate human rights and international law. ... The president says that the state knows what is best for its citizens, even if they haven't been informed of its benevolence. ... Due to the secretive nature of this system, it is impossible to control the consequences and abuse of the information gathered."

People in Hong Kong have no trouble protesting China's rights violations, and in the case of Edward Snowden, they have no trouble protesting rights violations they believe have been committed by the United States.

For the last seven years, U.S. national security
and espionage agencies have, in theory, been authorized to know about the phone
conversations of American citizens. For the past six years, the government has
also been trawling through the virtual lives of both U.S. residents and non
residents. It has scoured e-mails, conversations held over the Internet, video
conferences, files and computer networks.

An extensive network for gathering information has
come to light, thanks to a high-level U.S. bureaucrat who leaked documents to newspapers
The Washington Post, and its British
counterpart, The Guardian.

Not only was this covert invasion of privacy indiscriminate,
so were the legal statutes and orders that, in principal, regulate it, and
the supervisory system put in place to prevent its abuse.

This web of espionage is even more astounding for
a people so jealous of individual liberty and a government that is so ready to condemn
and punish other nations which violate human rights and international law.

Posted By Worldmeets.US

Surprised and aghast at the leak, Democratic President
Barack Obama argued that the executive has not violated the constitutional
balance of power. The president says that the state knows what is best for its
citizens, even if they haven't been informed of its benevolence.

No matter how many U.S. citizens - traumatised
by September 11th - support measures that restrict their rights in the name of
national security and the war on terrorism, this revelation will create
political difficulties for Obama.

Due to the secretive nature of this system, it
is impossible to control the consequences and abuse of the information gathered.
Just last week, an independent supervisory body was introduced to monitor
intelligence activities.

Obama was elected on a program that condemned
the arbitrariness and illegality of the counter-terrorism policies pursued by government
of Republican George W. Bush. He gets the credit for having "legalized,"
between 2006 and 2007, the assassination of suspects, imprisonment and detentions
abroad, and spying on the communications of his fellow citizens.

Under Obama's system of human rights neglect, state
agents acting under "top secret" authority can at will interpret laws
and invade the communications of innocent people, all without being held accountable
for their actions. This isn't all that surprising from president who, to this
very day, has failed to fulfilled his promise to close the odious prison at
Guantanamo Bay.